The 3rd day we were determined to complete the trip on schedule so we start very early at 5 am in the morning.
preparing for departure at dawn
The lights were still on and it was still dark (you can see the hotel name “Bungo Kincai”) and my cousin making final checks before departing, but then Murphy intervene again. On a crossroad we were unable to read the signs clearly and took the wrong direction, instead of following the east route we accidentally took the central route towards West Sumatra and there we lost about 130 kilometers of distance and 2 hours driving time.
We have to bear the consequences of not reading the signs carefully, we have to face convoys of overloaded trucks, and just bet the trucks were slow and we have to wait until the road is clear to overtake.
Overtaking a convoy of trucks
Again time were wasted. Moral of the incident is if you are not sure of direction, stop and read the signs clearly and if needed ask for direction
The load is twice the truck capacity
On entering the Riau province the road conditions were drastically changed, seems that the maintenance were poor although there are repairs but it seems that the road cannot withstand the overloaded trucks.
Damaged road under repair
We were forced to close the car windows due to road dust and use the air condition and that add additional burden on the car 1 liter engine and our speed were again reduced to average 45km/h.
After several hours of drive we decide to give the car engine and ourselves a break and we stopped at a restaurant for some coffee. Seems that the owner of the restaurant came from North Sumatra and named the restaurant “Kisaran” a town in North Sumatra.
The restaurant name is Kisaran a town in North Sumatra
Pekan Baru is just another 125 km more and we were convinced that we will reach Pekan baru just in time for me to catch the night bus to Medan. Very unfortunately Murphy decide to join us again just after we left the restaurant the rain pour down heavily and our engine starts to jerk again. No choice, we have to clear the fuel filter from water, and it happened 3 times before we reach our final destination and finish the trip at midnight in Pekan Baru.
For my cousin he achieved his schedule and Pekan Baru is his last destination but for me I have to wait to take the night bus from Pekan Baru on the next day, but then there was nothing to write since I was really dead tired and fall asleep all the way long from Pekan Baru till Medan.
